I appeared on Wall Street Journal Radio’s The Daily Wrap with Michael Castner last night so I could say the words “breasts” and “sexualization” on the air. The U13 boys’ soccer team that I coach would have snickered. I’ll bet a few adults did, too, which is exactly why Bebé Glotòn, a doll that breastfeeds that’s come from Spain to American toy stores, is news in the first place.

I know I’m supposed to go on about how breastfeeding is natural and all that. Parenting writers are ingrained to preface all such discussions with the words “breast-milk is best.” That little girls can’t make breast-milk is irrelevant, I guess, just like it didn’t matter than my sons didn’t have driver’s licenses when they rode their toy cars around our driveway.

As I mentioned on the show last night, girls (and some boys) use their (far less expensive) dolls to imitate their mothers when they breastfeed anyhow, which is all fine by me. But there truly is something creepy about this doll, and I think it’s in the halter top that comes with it. See?

There are pink fabric daisies in lieu of nipples on a halter top.

Just writing that felt disturbing. Seeing it makes me want to put on a turtleneck sweater, even in 90-degree weather.

The halter top reminds me of those flowery, pastel-colored booklets our mothers gave us to explain about our new “friend” who would be arriving monthly starting in middle school, and yet also “Clockwork Orange.” But at least there are no realistic nipples sewn onto it. (The halter top, that is. I don’t know what the hell happened in “Clockwork Orange,” because I walked out of the movie theater after about 20 minutes.)

But I know the breastfeeding doll bothers Americans because, as I said on the radio last night, we have sexualized breasts to the point that seeing a baby eating from one often makes us giggle or get all creeped out. When Victoria’s Secret models’ breasts practically pour out from storefront signs into the mall, it’s fine by us. But a mom sitting on a nearby bench feeding her baby from her breasts? Not so much.

But I just can’t get over that halter top. I guess it was thrown into the box so the “Gluttonous Baby” dollmakers could charge the $118 it’s going for on Amazon right now. Sure, it sucks (literally), cries and even burps, which my boys’ soccer team would appreciate most of all. But for that price, why not just use a regular old doll and no creepy halter top like generations of girls have done before? Well, for two reasons:

Because the doll reinforces that “breast-milk is best” to a new generation of future mothers, a major coup for the breast-milk-only crowd facing dirty stares in malls across the country.

7 responses to “Is the Breastfeeding Doll UnAmerican?”

Found my way via another website. I do have to gioive the disclaimer that I am Childfree. This doll kind of creeps me out too. I also think its unnecessary. A child can pretend to breast feed with any doll, shoot with a teddy bear if she wants to.

@Ilana. I had a similar experience. A colleague on maternity leave came in to show off her baby. Later when I went down to the cafeteria she was breastfeeding uncovered which made just about everyone, male and female, alike uncomfortable. Yes, on a purely logical level we know breastfeeding is best and natural and legal, but there are just somethings you don’t want to see, like a co-workers boob.

I know lots of breastfeeding advocates say Just dont look, that was a little hard for those at that dining table. And lots of not lactating people say don’t do it in public. But hey, the kids gotta eat. I think a little consideration and empathy on both side could go along way. I understand about not wanting to feed a baby in a restroom. I’m old enough to remember when ladies rooms had an anteroom with a couch for fainting and feeding. I think a modesty covering would allow the Mom to feed in public and not upset the sensibilities of others. Yeah, folks know whats happening under the covering, but they’re not getting slapped upside the head with a mammary gland. Mom gets to feed the aby and engage in conversation with the people around her. Win-win.

Yeah, it’s much better to pretend that we are over feeding the baby formula that may lead to a life of obesity and health problems. It’s unAmerican to teach healthy lifestyles. What’s wrong with you people.

I haven’t written about the doll on my own blog because I am honestly not sure how I feel about it. Actually, I do know how I feel about it— IT’S TOTALLY CREEPY!!!! But I also kind of want to be one of those people that thinks Americans make way too big of a deal over nudity and breastfeeding is totally natural etc. etc.

I am a huge advocate of breastfeeding but I also know that formula is one of the things that helped the women’s movement so they could go back to work after having a baby. And breast pumping SUCKS. Although I did it for over a year.

It’s a loaded bag I guess.

Also? I was at a wedding this weekend where someone breastfed, uncovered at the dinner table and I thought it was totally ridiculous. She very easily could have used a cover-up or gone into the hallway.

The halter top is kind of weird. The flowers make me think of those old health videos that refer to the flowering of womanhood or some romance novel where they use similar terms to describe naughty bits in love scenes.
I’m all for breast feeding, and it didn’t bother me one iota that my girls (and one of my boys) pretended to nurse dolls (the boy did it maybe twice then went back to smashing the doll with a train). I have a bigger problem with a doll that costs over $100. Call me a traditionalist, but I like the mostly soft kinds with no batteries. Why spend all that money on a hard plastic doll that eats batteries and can only be in a crawling position? So this one can nurse and burp. Whoopdie do. I think the fact that girls have pretended to nurse dolls for thousands of years shows you don’t need to fork over all that money to “educate” them. My daughters can pretend all the same things and more on a $6.99 doll and go to DisneyWorld for a day and get ice cream for the same price. But if you think your daughter would benefit from it, knock yourself out. I’ll be at DisneyWorld.

I don’t think it’s creepy. I feel that, if people are put off by it, then they don’t have to buy one for their child. I am a big breastfeeding advocate and breast fed my daughter. You will not see me getting bent out of shape when she wants a doll that comes with a bottle.

Funny that it’s European, because what’s more American than charging parents $100 for a plastic, battery-powered toy so they can play the way they naturally would with a much cheaper toy? Lol. It doesn’t bother me one bit, but I’d never pay that for a doll and hate battery powered dolls.